U.S. Department of Justice
Office of Justice Programs
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
N AT I O N A L
SURVEY
OF
Children’s Exposure to Violence
Jeff Slowikowski, Acting Administrator
Office of Justice Programs
Innovation • Partnerships • Safer Neighborhoods
Children’s Exposure
to Violence:
A Comprehensive
National Survey
David Finkelhor, Heather Turner, Richard Ormrod,
Sherry Hamby, and Kristen Kracke
This Bulletin discusses the National Survey of Children’s Exposure to Violence
(NatSCEV), the most comprehensive
nationwide survey of the incidence and
prevalence of children’s exposure to violence to date, sponsored by the Office of
Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) and supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC). Conducted between January and
May 2008, it measured the past-year and
lifetime exposure to violence for children
age 17 and younger across several major
categories: conventional crime, child
maltreatment, victimization by peers and
siblings, sexual victimization, witnessing
and indirect victimization (including exposure to community violence and family
violence), school violence and threats, and
Internet victimization. (For more detailed
information on the types of violence that
children were questioned about, see
“Screening Questions” on page 2.) This
survey is the first comprehensive attempt
to measure children’s exposure to violence in the home, school, and community
across all age groups from birth to age 17,
October 2009
and the first attempt to measure the cumulative exposure to violence over the child’s
lifetime.
The survey confirms that most of our
society’s children are exposed to violence
in their daily lives. More than 60 percent
of the children surveyed were exposed
to violence within the past year, either
directly or indirectly (i.e., as a witness to
a violent act; by learning of a violent act
against a family member, neighbor, or
close friend; or from a threat against their
home or school) (for full details on these
and other statistics cited in this Bulletin,
see Finkelhor et al., 2009). Nearly one-half
of the children and adolescents surveyed
(46.3 percent) were assaulted at least once
in the past year, and more than 1 in 10
(10.2 percent) were injured in an assault; 1
in 4 (24.6 percent) were victims of robbery,
vandalism, or theft; 1 in 10 (10.2 percent)
suffered from child maltreatment (including physical and emotional abuse, neglect,
or a family abduction); and 1 in 16 (6.1 percent) were victimized sexually. More than 1
in 4 (25.3 percent) witnessed a violent act
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A Message From OJJDP
Children are exposed to violence
every day in their homes, schools,
and communities. They may be
struck by a boyfriend, bullied by a
classmate, or abused by an adult.
They may witness an assault on a
parent or a shooting on the street.
Such exposure can cause significant
physical, mental, and emotional harm
with long-term effects that can last
well into adulthood.
In 1999, OJJDP created the Safe
Start Initiative to prevent and reduce
the impact of children’s exposure to
violence through enhanced practice,
research, evaluation, training and
technical assistance, resources, and
outreach. The initiative has improved
the delivery of developmentally appropriate services for children exposed to
violence and their families.
Understanding the nature and extent
of children’s exposure to violence
is essential to combating its effects.
Partnering with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, OJJDP
has sponsored the most comprehensive effort to date to measure
children’s exposure to violence. The
National Survey of Children’s Exposure to Violence is the first survey
to ask children and caregivers about
exposure to a range of violent incidents and maltreatment.
As amply evidenced in this Bulletin,
children’s exposure to violence is
pervasive and crosses all ages. The
research findings reported here are
critical to informing our efforts to protect children from its damaging effects.
and nearly 1 in 10 (9.8 percent) saw one
family member assault another. Multiple
victimizations were common: more than
one-third (38.7 percent) experienced 2 or
more direct victimizations in the previous year, more than 1 in 10 (10.9 percent)
experienced 5 or more direct victimizations in the previous year, and more than
1 in 75 (1.4 percent) experienced 10 or
more direct victimizations in the previous
year.
Reports of lifetime exposure to violence
were generally about one-third to one-half
higher than reports of past-year exposure,
although the difference tended to be
greater for less frequent and more severe
types of victimization. (For example, more
than three times as many respondents
reported being victims of a kidnapping
over their lifetimes as did in the past
year.) Nearly seven in eight children (86.6
percent) who reported being exposed
to violence during their lifetimes also
reported being exposed to violence within
the past year, which indicated that these
children were at ongoing risk of violent
victimization. The reports of lifetime
exposure also indicate how certain types
of exposure change and accumulate as
a child grows up; nearly one in five girls
ages 14 to 17 (18.7 percent) had been the
victim of a sexual assault or attempted
sexual assault, and more than one-third of
all 14- to 17-year-olds had seen a parent
assaulted.
Background
The Problem of Violence
Against Children
Children in the United States are more
likely to be exposed to violence and crime
than are adults (Finkelhor, 2008; Hashima
and Finkelhor, 1999). In 2005, juveniles
and young adults ages 12 to 19 were more
than twice as likely to be victims of violent crimes as the population as a whole
(Baum, 2005).1 Each year, millions of children and adolescents in the United States
are exposed to violence in their homes,
schools, and communities as both victims
and witnesses. Even if they are not physically present, children may be affected
by intentional harm done by another
(for example, the murder of or an assault
on a family member or close neighbor).
Children react to exposure to violence in
different ways, and many children show
remarkable resilience. All too often,
Screening Questions
The survey asked screening questions about 48 types of victimization in the following categories:
u Conventional crime. Nine types of victimization, including robbery, theft, destruction of
property, attack with an object or weapon, attack without an object or weapon, attempted
attack, threatened attack, kidnapping or attempted kidnapping, and hate crime or bias
attack (an attack on a child because of the child’s or parent’s skin color, religion, physical problem, or perceived sexual orientation).
u Child maltreatment. Four types of victimization, including being hit, kicked, or beaten by
an adult (other than spanking on the bottom); psychological or emotional abuse; neglect;
and abduction by a parent or caregiver, also known as custodial interference.
u Peer and sibling victimization. Six types of victimization, including being attacked by
a group of children; being hit or beaten by another child, including a brother or sister;
being hit or kicked in the private parts; being chased, grabbed, or forced to do something; being teased or emotionally bullied; and being a victim of dating violence.
u Sexual victimization. Seven types of victimization, including sexual contact or fondling
by an adult the child knew, sexual contact or fondling by an adult stranger, sexual contact
or fondling by another child or teenager, attempted or completed intercourse, exposure or
“flashing,” sexual harassment, and consensual sexual conduct with an adult.
u Witnessing and indirect victimization. These fall into two general categories, exposure to community violence and exposure to family violence. For exposure to community violence, the survey included 10 types of victimization, including seeing someone
attacked with an object or weapon; seeing someone attacked without an object or
weapon; having something stolen from the household; having a friend, neighbor, or family member murdered; witnessing a murder; witnessing or hearing a shooting, bombing,
or riot; being in a war zone; knowing a family member or close friend who was fondled
or forced to have sex; knowing a family member or close friend who was robbed or
mugged; and knowing a family member or close friend who was threatened with a gun
or knife.
For exposure to family violence, eight types of victimization were assessed: seeing a
parent assaulted by a spouse, domestic partner, or boyfriend or girlfriend; seeing a
brother or sister assaulted by a parent; threat by one parent to assault the other; threat
by a parent to damage the other parent’s property; one parent pushing the other;
one parent hitting or slapping the other; one parent kicking, choking, or beating up
the other; and assault by another adult household member against a child or adult in
the household.
u School violence and threat. Two types of victimization, including a credible bomb
threat against the child’s school and fire or other property damage to the school.
u Internet violence and victimization. Two types of victimization, including Internet
threats or harassment and unwanted online sexual solicitation.
however, children who are exposed to
violence undergo lasting physical, mental,
and emotional harm. They suffer from
difficulties with attachment, regressive
behavior, anxiety and depression, and
aggression and conduct problems. They
may be more prone to dating violence,
delinquency, further victimization, and
involvement with the child welfare and
juvenile justice systems. Moreover, being
exposed to violence may impair a child’s
capacity for partnering and parenting later
in life, continuing the cycle of violence
into the next generation.
2
Research has found that early identification, intervention, and continued followup
are valuable strategies to prevent or
decrease the impact of exposure to violence. Families, teachers, police, judges,
pediatricians, mental health providers,
child protection workers, domestic violence advocates, and others who interact
with children have a responsibility to
create interventions, both physical and
psychological, that decrease or prevent
the harms associated with exposure to
violence.2 These include ways of interacting sensitively and expeditiously with
children, ensuring protective environments and caregivers, and helping children use positive coping skills. Much
more research is warranted about what
works to mitigate the effects of exposure
to violence.
Too little is known about the numbers of
children exposed to violence. Although
several studies have attempted to measure children’s exposure to violence,
these estimates have varied greatly and
have often measured only a subset of
that exposure.3 Not only does this partial
measurement fail to reveal the full extent
of violence against children, it also fails
to account fully for the multiple victimizations that many children experience; the
co-occurrence of certain types of violence
(for example, intimate partner violence
and child maltreatment or neglect within a
household); the extent to which exposure
to one type of violence may make a child
more vulnerable to other types of violence
and victimization; and the cumulative
effects of repeated exposure to violence
as both a direct victim and a witness.
Basic epidemiological data are important
to determine the extent of the public
health problem, the need for services, and
a baseline for evaluating progress.
Prior Attempts at
Comprehensive
Measurements
There have been many studies on the
health and behavioral consequences of
child maltreatment and, to a lesser extent,
on other forms of violence against children.4 However, most of these studies
focused on only one type of violence or
on a few types within a single category
such as child abuse.5 Two notable earlier
studies attempted to measure children’s
exposure to violence and its adverse
effects in a more comprehensive fashion. The Adverse Childhood Experiences
(ACE) study, cosponsored by CDC and
Kaiser Permanente, looked at the consequences for future health and well-being
of exposure to seven types of adverse
childhood experiences6 under the categories of abuse, neglect, and household
dysfunction. Almost two-thirds of those
surveyed had suffered at least one adverse
childhood experience, and more than
one in five respondents reported three or
more such experiences. The survey found
increased rates of a number of long-term
harms to physical, mental, and emotional
health associated with those experiences,
including alcoholism, drug abuse, depression, severe obesity, and several chronic
adult diseases. The survey further found
that multiple adverse experiences compounded those harms. Although the ACE
study was one of the first to document
the long-term consequences of multiple
childhood victimizations, it had a different
focus than NatSCEV. For one, the study
questioned adults on their memories of
adverse childhood experiences rather
than surveying children directly, and the
set of adverse experiences was more limited than those included in NatSCEV.
The other major attempt to examine the
prevalence and incidence of children’s
exposure to violence was the Developmental Victimization Survey (DVS), a precursor to NatSCEV. DVS asked a nationally
representative sample of 2,030 children
ages 10 to 17 and caregivers of children
ages 2 to 9 about their past-year exposure
to crime and violence in five categories:
conventional crime, child maltreatment,
peer and sibling victimization, sexual
assault, and witnessing and indirect victimization (Finkelhor et al., 2005; Kracke
and Hahn, 2008). DVS was the first survey
to simultaneously examine these various
forms of victimization to obtain a comprehensive picture of children’s exposure to
violence. It was also the first national survey to estimate the incidence of many specific forms of victimization such as bias
attacks and witnessing physical abuse
(Finkelhor et al., 2005; Kracke and Hahn,
2008). DVS generally found a higher rate of
specific types of victimization than earlier
studies such as the National Crime Victimization Survey. Nearly three-quarters of
the respondents (71 percent) reported a
3
direct or indirect victimization within the
past year, and the average young victim
reported three separate types of victimizations in separate incidents. More than
one-third of those surveyed reported that
they witnessed violence or were otherwise
indirect victims of violence. DVS, however,
provided only a limited assessment of
lifetime incidence of exposure to violence;
did not look specifically at items such as
threats and Internet victimization; and
had limited measurement of exposure to
family violence, exposure to community
violence, and school violence and threats.
DVS also did not include children younger
than age 2. NatSCEV expands on DVS by
comprehensively assessing lifetime exposure, considering additional forms of violence, and including infants in the sample.
With its much larger sample size, NatSCEV
also allows for much more reliable estimates of rarer forms of victimization and
more accurate rates within different subgroups of the population (Finkelhor et al.,
2009).
History of the
Current Study
Under the leadership of then Deputy
Attorney General Eric Holder in June
1999, OJJDP created the Safe Start Initiative to prevent and reduce the impact of
children’s exposure to violence. As a part
of this initiative and with a growing need
to document the full extent of children’s
exposure to violence, OJJDP launched the
National Survey of Children’s Exposure to
Violence.
Safe Start’s NatSCEV is the first national
incidence and prevalence study to examine
Exhibit 1: Past-Year Exposure to Selected Categories of Violence for
All Children Surveyed
Percentage of children exposed
70
60
Highlights of the
Survey Results
60.6%
50
40
36.7%
30
19.2%
20
14.9%
10
10.2%
9.8%
6.1%
1.4%
0
Any
exposure
providing critical national data on levels of
violence as well as data on key indicators
of protective factors.
Assault
with no
weapon
or injury
Assault
with
weapon
and/
or injury
Sexual
victimization
Child
maltreatment
Dating
violence*
Witness- Witnessing
ing
community
family
assault
assault
Type of violence
* Figures for dating violence are only for children and adolescents age 12 and older.
comprehensively the extent and nature
of children’s exposure to violence across
all ages, settings, and timeframes (see
“Methodology” on page 6). It measures
their experience of violence in the home,
school, and community. It asked children
and their adult caregivers about not only
the incidents of violence that children
suffered and witnessed themselves but
also other related crime and threat exposures, such as theft or burglary from a
child’s household, being in a school that
was the target of a credible bomb threat,
and being in a war zone or an area where
ethnic violence occurred. It includes both
the past-year and lifetime exposure to
violence of children of all ages up to age
17. The study was developed under the
direction of OJJDP, and was designed and
conducted by the Crimes against Children
Research Center of the University of New
Hampshire. It provides comprehensive
data on the full extent of violence in
the daily lives of children. The primary
purpose of NatSCEV is to document the
incidence and prevalence of children’s
exposure to a broad array of violent experiences across a wide developmental spectrum. The research team asked followup
questions about specific events, including
where the exposure to violence occurred,
whether injury resulted, how often the
child was exposed to a specific type of
violence, and the child’s relationship
to the perpetrator and (when the child
witnessed violence) the victim. In addition, the study documents differences in
exposure to violence across gender, race,
socioeconomic status, family structure,
region, urban/rural residence, and developmental stage of the child; specifies how
different forms of violent victimization
“cluster” or co-occur; identifies individual,
family, and community-level predictors of
violence exposure among children; examines associations between levels/types of
violence exposure and child mental and
emotional health; and assesses the extent
to which children disclose incidents of violence to various individuals and the nature
and source of assistance or treatment provided (if any).
This study began in 2007 with funding
from OJJDP’s Safe Start Initiative. OJJDP
then partnered with CDC to collect additional data on safe, stable, and nurturing
relationships—a key focus for CDC’s child
maltreatment prevention activities. The
combined approach by OJJDP and CDC is
4
NatSCEV estimates both past-year and
lifetime exposure to violence across a
number of categories, including physical
assault, bullying, sexual victimization,
child maltreatment, dating violence, and
witnessed and indirect victimization
(See “Methodology” on page 6 for more
detailed definitions of these terms). Exhibit 1 illustrates the past-year exposure for
all survey respondents to selected categories of violence. Some of the more notable
findings are outlined below (see Finkelhor
et al., 2009, for more details).
As noted earlier, the NatSCEV survey
found that children’s exposure to violence
is common; more than 60 percent of the
children surveyed had been exposed to
violence in the past year and more than 1
in 10 reported 5 or more exposures. This
exposure occurs across all age ranges of
childhood and for both genders. In general, however, the types of exposure that
were most prevalent among younger children were less serious, such as assaults
without a weapon or without injury,
assaults by a juvenile sibling, or bullying
and teasing, all of which were most common among 6- to 9-year-olds and declined
thereafter. Older adolescents ages 14 to
17 were the most likely to experience
more serious forms of violence, including
assaults with injury, gang assaults, sexual
victimizations, and physical and emotional abuse, and to witness violence in
the community. (See exhibit 2 for a list of
the most common victimizations for each
age range from infancy to later adolescence.) This is not a hard and fast distinction; some serious forms of victimization,
including kidnapping and assaults with a
weapon, were most common among 10- to
13-year-olds. This age group was also the
most likely to witness violence within the
home, including domestic violence involving their parents and assaults by other
family members.
The following sections provide more details
about the findings of the study regarding
children’s exposure to major categories of
violence, including assaults, bullying, sexual
victimization, child maltreatment, and
witnessing and indirect victimization. The
Bulletin then discusses the study’s findings
about multiple and cumulative exposures
Exhibit 2: Developmental
Patterns in Exposure to
Violence
to violence, including documentation that
children who are exposed to one form of
violence are at greatly increased risk for
being exposed to violence in other forms.
Victimization in Infancy
Physical Assault
Most common victimizations during
this period:
Assault by a sibling
Assault with no weapon or injury
Witnessing family assault
Nearly one-half (46.3 percent) of all the
children surveyed were physically assaulted within the previous year, and more
than one-half (56.7 percent) had been
assaulted during their lifetime. Physical
assaults are extremely common across
the entire span of childhood and peak
during middle childhood. Assaults by siblings especially show a marked developmental trend, peaking during the middle
childhood years (ages 6 to 9) and then
declining. Incidence for the most severe
assaults, however, rises steadily with age.
Among 14- to 17-year-olds, nearly one in
five (18.8 percent) had been injured in the
past year in a physical assault. New forms
of violence, such as dating violence, also
emerge during adolescence, reaching a
5.6-percent past-year incidence rate and
an 8.8-percent lifetime rate for the oldest
adolescents. The lifetime incidence of
assault victimization generally rose steadily as children grew older, with more than
7 in 10 14- to 17-year-olds (71.1 percent)
reporting that they had been assaulted
during their lifetimes (Finkelhor et al.,
2009).
Victimization in the Toddler Years
(Ages 2 to 5)
Most common victimizations during
this period:
Assault by a sibling
Assault with no weapon or injury
Bullying (physical)
Witnessing family assault
Victimization in Middle Childhood
(Ages 6 to 9)
Peak risk period for:
Assault by a sibling
Assault with no weapon or injury
Bullying (physical)
Emotional bullying/teasing
Victimization in Preteens and Early
Adolescence (Ages 10 to 13)
Peak risk period for:
Assault with weapon
Sexual harassment (same rate
ages 10 to 17)
Kidnapping
Witnessing family assault
Witnessing intimate partner
(interparental) violence
Victimization in Later Adolescence
(Ages 14 to 17)
Peak risk period for:
Assault with injury
Assault by peer (nonsibling)
Genital assault
Dating violence
Sexual victimizations of all types
Sexual assault
Sexual harassment (same rate
ages 10 to 17)
Flashing or sexual exposure
Unwanted online sexual solicitation
Any maltreatment
Physical abuse
Psychological or emotional abuse
Witnessing community assault
Exposure to shooting
School threat of bomb or attack
In general, boys are somewhat more likely
than girls to be victims of assault. The
past-year incidence of assault is 50.2
percent for boys and 42.1 percent for
girls, and the lifetime incidence of assault
is 60.3 percent for boys and 52.9 percent
for girls. These patterns are consistent
with other data on criminal victimization,
which typically show that males are the
most common targets of physical assault
(Finkelhor, 2008; Kilpatrick, Saunders, and
Smith, 2003; Baum, 2005; Rand, 2008).
Bullying
The survey looked at bullying separately
from assault and asked about multiple
types of bullying: physical bullying,
emotional bullying, and Internet harassment. Overall, 13.2 percent of those surveyed reported having been physically
bullied within the past year, and more
than one in five (21.6 percent) reported
having been physically bullied during
their lifetimes. The risk of bullying peaks
during middle childhood in a pattern
similar to that for sibling assault. The
5
highest incidence occurs among 6- to
9-year-olds, who had rates of 21.5 percent
past-year incidence and 28.0 percent lifetime incidence.
About 1 in 5 children (19.7 percent)
reported having been teased or emotionally bullied in the previous year and
nearly 3 in 10 reported having been teased
or emotionally bullied in their lifetimes.
Teasing or emotional bullying followed a
similar pattern to physical bullying among
age groups, rising to reach a peak among
6- to 9-year-olds, nearly one-third of whom
(30.4 percent) reported having been
teased in the past year and then falling
steadily thereafter.
Internet harassment was less common
than other forms of bullying. Questions
about Internet harassment were asked
only of youth age 10 and older, who might
be most likely to independently use a
computer. Unlike other forms of bullying,
the peak risk period for Internet harassment was ages 14 to 17. In this group, 5.6
percent reported Internet harassment
within the past year and 7.9 percent during their lifetimes.
Boys were more likely than girls to be
physically bullied or threatened, but girls
were more likely to be victims of Internet
harassment. For past-year rates, there
were no significant gender differences in
emotional bullying; however, for lifetime
rates, girls reported more cumulative
exposure to emotional bullying than boys
(Finkelhor et al., 2009).
Sexual Victimization
Overall, 6.1 percent of all children surveyed had been sexually victimized in the
past year and nearly 1 in 10 (9.8 percent)
over their lifetimes. Sexual victimizations
included attempted and completed rape
(1.1 percent past year, 2.4 percent lifetime); sexual assault by a known adult (0.3
percent past year, 1.2 percent lifetime), an
adult stranger (0.3 percent past year, 0.5
percent lifetime), or a peer (1.3 percent
past year, 2.7 percent lifetime); flashing or
sexual exposure by an adult (0.4 percent
past year, 0.6 percent lifetime) or peer
(2.2 percent past year, 3.7 percent lifetime); sexual harassment (2.6 percent past
year, 4.2 percent lifetime); and statutory
sexual offenses (0.1 percent past year,
0.4 percent lifetime).7 Adolescents ages
14 to 17 were by far the most likely to be
sexually victimized; nearly one in six (16.3
percent) was sexually victimized in the
past year, and more than one in four (27.3
percent) had been sexually victimized
during their lifetimes. The most common
forms of sexual victimization were flashing
or exposure by a peer, sexual harassment,
and sexual assault.
Girls were more likely than boys to be
sexually victimized: 7.4 percent of girls
reported a sexual victimization within the
past year, and nearly one in eight (12.2
percent) reported being sexually victimized during their lifetimes. Girls ages 14 to
17 had the highest rates of sexual victimization: 7.9 percent were victims of sexual
assault in the past year and 18.7 percent
during their lifetimes (Finkelhor et al.,
2009).
Child Maltreatment
Overall, more than 1 in 10 children surveyed (10.2 percent) suffered some form
of maltreatment (including physical abuse
other than sexual assault, psychological
or emotional abuse, child neglect, and
custodial interference) during the past
year and nearly 1 in 5 (18.6 percent) during their lifetimes. Both the past-year and
lifetime rates of exposure to maltreatment
rose as children grew older, particularly
for children age 10 and older: one in six
14- to 17-year-olds (16.6 percent) suffered
maltreatment during the past year and
nearly one in three (32.1 percent) during
their lifetimes.
Patterns of child maltreatment were similar for girls and boys with the exception
of psychological or emotional abuse, the
incidence of which was somewhat higher
for girls than for boys. Rates of sexual
assault by a known adult (not limited to
caregivers) were also higher for girls than
for boys, in a pattern that was similar to
other forms of sexual victimization.
Witnessing and Indirect
Exposure to Violence
NatSCEV found that witnessing violence
was a common occurrence for children,
particularly as they grew older. Overall, more than one-quarter of children
surveyed (25.3 percent) had witnessed
violence in their homes, schools, and
communities during the past year; and
more than one-third (37.8 percent) had
witnessed violence against another person during their lifetimes. The proportion
of children who witnessed violence both
within the past year and during their lifetimes rose from one age group to the next.
Methodology
The National Survey of Children’s Exposure to Violence (NatSCEV) was conducted between January and May 2008. Researchers conducted interviews
about the experiences of a nationally representative sample of 4,549 children
and adolescents age 17 and younger. They interviewed by telephone youth ages
10 to 17 and adult caregivers of children age 9 and younger. Because telephone
interviews afford greater anonymity and privacy than in-person interviews, they
may encourage those interviewed to be more forthcoming about such sensitive
matters as being exposed to violence or being victims of crime.
The interview sample (n = 4,549) consisted of 2 groups: a nationally representative sample of telephone numbers within the contiguous United States (n = 3,053)
and an oversample of telephone exchanges with 70 percent or greater African
American, Hispanic, or low-income households to ensure a proportion of minority and low-income households large enough for subgroup analysis. Both groups
were sampled through random-digit dialing. The cooperation rate for the first
group was 71 percent and the response rate was 54 percent. The oversample
had somewhat lower cooperation (63 percent) and response rates (43 percent).
A nonresponse analysis conducted on households that could not be contacted or
that declined to participate indicated that the risk of victimization for those households did not differ systematically from the risk for households that took part in
the survey.
An adult, usually a parent, provided demographic information for each participating household, including race/ethnicity (one of four categories: white, nonHispanic; black, non-Hispanic; other race, non-Hispanic; and Hispanic, any race)
and household income. The child in the household with the most recent birthday
was then selected to be surveyed. Interviewers spoke directly with children age
10 and older; for children age 9 and younger, the parent or other adult caregiver
“most familiar with the child’s daily routine and experience” was interviewed.
Comparison of a number of indicators, including reports of child maltreatment or
neglect and violence by family members, found no evidence that caregivers who
answered for younger children failed to report neglect or violence that was occurring in the family.
Interviews averaged about 45 minutes in length and were conducted in both English
and Spanish. Approximately 279 caregiver interviews were conducted in Spanish;
almost all interviews with children and adolescents 10 and older were in English.
Types of Violent Victimization Surveyed
Interviewers asked the children or their caregivers about their exposure to
selected types of violence in the past year and over their lifetimes (see “Screening Questions” on page 2). In addition, interviewers asked followup questions
about the perpetrator, the use of a weapon, injury, and whether multiple events
Of all forms of victimization measured in
NatSCEV, witnessing community violence
showed the strongest age trends. There
was more than a sevenfold increase in
rates from toddlers (2- to 5-year-olds) to
older adolescents (14- to 17-year-olds).
More than 7 in 10 14- to 17-year-olds had
witnessed violence against another person
during their lives.
These age trends were due mostly to witnessing violence in the community. The
past-year incidence of witnessing assaults
in the community rose from 5.8 percent
among 2- to 5-year-olds to 42.2 percent
among 14- to 17-year-olds; lifetime incidence
6
rose even more dramatically, from 9.0
percent of 2- to 5-year-olds to nearly twothirds (64.2 percent) of 14- to 17-year-olds.
Witnessing of shootings also rose sharply
in both past-year and lifetime incidence
from one age group to the next. Among
children younger than 2 years old, 1.1
percent were exposed to shootings in the
past year, whereas more than 1 in 10 14to 17-year-olds (10.2 percent) witnessed
a shooting in the past year. Similarly, 3.5
percent of 2- to 5-year-olds had witnessed
a shooting during their lifetimes, whereas
more than one in five 14- to 17-year-olds
(22.2 percent) had witnessed a shooting.8
As striking as these age trends are, even
Methodology (continued)
occurred together. Because different types of victimization can occur together
and some events fall into more than one category (for example, physical abuse
by a parent or caretaker can also be considered an assault), a number of items
were rescored. A total of 51 victimization items were extracted in the following
categories:
u Assaults. These included any physical assault, assault with a weapon, assault with
injury, assault without a weapon, attempted assault, attempted or completed kidnapping,
assault by a brother or sister, assault by another child or adolescent, nonsexual genital
assault, dating violence, bias attacks, and threats.
u Bullying. This included physical bullying, teasing or emotional bullying, and Internet
harassment.
u Sexual victimization. This included completed or attempted rape; sexual assault by an
adult acquaintance, an adult stranger, or another child or adolescent; flashing by an adult
or another child or adolescent; sexual harassment orally or in writing; statutory sexual
offenses; and unwanted online sexual solicitation.
u Child maltreatment by an adult. This included physical abuse, psychological or emotional abuse, neglect, and custodial interference or family abduction.
u Witnessed and indirect victimization. Witnessed victimization included witnessing the
following: an assault by one parent or family member against another, an assault by a
parent on a brother or sister, an assault on a family member by someone outside the
household, an assault outside the home, or a murder. Types of indirect victimization
included exposure to shooting, bombs, or riots; exposure to war or ethnic conflict; being
told about or seeing evidence of a violent event in the child’s household or community;
theft or burglary from the child’s household; or a credible threat of a bomb or attack
against the child’s school.
Limitations
The survey methodology has several limitations that may cause it to understate children’s actual exposure to violence. First, because the survey required the cooperation
of the family, it ran the risk of missing those children who were most vulnerable to being
exposed either to violence in general or to specific types of violence. Second, parents
or caregivers who answer for younger children may not know about all of a child’s exposure to violence or may underreport or minimize certain types of victimization. Third, the
screening and followup questions may miss some episodes of victimization and incorrectly
classify others. Fourth, children may not recall some exposure to violence, particularly less
serious exposure, or may not accurately recall the timing of their exposure (i.e., whether
or not the exposure occurred within the past year). Despite these limitations, NatSCEV
provides the most detailed and comprehensive data available on youth victimization.
the lower numbers among young children
are cause for great concern.
In contrast to the patterns for witnessing
community violence, few age trends in
exposure can be seen for witnessing violence within the family. Rates for witnessing family violence were fairly constant
across the span of childhood, with all age
groups falling in a fairly narrow range of
approximately 6 to 11 percent.
Over the course of their lifetimes, boys
overall were slightly more likely than girls
to witness violence (40.1 percent of boys
and 35.4 percent of girls). Boys were more
likely to witness violence in the community, murder, and shootings both in the
past year and during their lifetimes. There
were no gender differences in witnessing
family violence (Finkelhor et al., 2009).
Multiple and Cumulative
Victimizations
A large proportion of children surveyed
(38.7 percent) reported more than one
direct victimization (a victimization directed toward the child, as opposed to an
incident that the child witnessed, heard,
or was otherwise exposed to) within the
previous year. Of those who reported any
7
direct victimization, nearly two-thirds
(64.5 percent) reported more than one. A
significant number of children reported
high levels of exposure to violence in the
past year: more than 1 in 10 (10.9 percent)
reported 5 or more direct exposures to
violence, and 1.4 percent reported 10 or
more direct victimizations. (Victimizations that could be counted in more than
one category, such as physical abuse by
a parent or caregiver that could also be
considered an assault, were not included
in the counting of multiple victimizations.
See “Methodology” for a discussion of this
point.)
Children who were exposed to one type
of violence, both within the past year and
over their lifetimes, were at far greater
risk of experiencing other types of violence. For example, a child who was physically assaulted in the past year would be
five times as likely to also have been sexually victimized and more than four times
as likely also to have been maltreated
during that period. Similarly, a child who
was physically assaulted during his or her
lifetime would be more than six times as
likely to have been sexually victimized
and more than five times as likely to have
been maltreated during his or her lifetime.
Implications for
Policymakers,
Researchers, and
Practitioners
The findings of the NatSCEV study confirm that for many children in the United
States, violence is a frequent occurrence.
Of the nationally representative sample of
U.S. youth who participated in the study,
more than 60 percent reported that they
were victims of direct or indirect violence
in the past year. Furthermore, nearly twothirds of those participants were victimized more than once. Nearly one-half of the
children surveyed reported that they were
assaulted during the previous year, and
more than 10 percent of them were injured
as a result. More than one-fourth of the
children witnessed another person being
violently attacked. More than 10 percent of
the children surveyed reported that they
were indirectly exposed to violence.
More needs to be understood about how
exposure to individual episodes of violence, repeated exposure to violence, and
multiple types of exposure affect children
and families, providing many avenues
categories and determines which types of
violence occur more or less frequently. For
example, the research team broke assaults
down into peer and sibling assaults, assaults without weapon or injury, and
more serious types of assaults. Peer and
sibling assaults were common across all
age ranges and across both genders. More
serious types of assaults included assaults
with a weapon, assaults with injury, gang
assaults, attempted assaults, genital assaults, dating violence, and bias attacks
(which were less common).
Monitoring Exposure
Over Time
for research and policy development. As
in this study, future research and policy
development efforts must incorporate
a broader perspective in documenting
the full scope of children’s exposure to
violence.
Understanding the
Progression of Violence
NatSCEV detailed the extent to which
children in this country are exposed to
serious violence. The study found that in
the year prior to being interviewed, 1 in 20
children witnessed someone being shot,
1 in 200 witnessed a murder, and 1 in 50
was sexually assaulted. The survey showed
that as children grow older the incidences
of victimization increase. Among 14- to
17-year-old participants, 1 in 10 witnessed
a shooting in the past year, 1 in 75 witnessed a murder, and 1 in 20 was sexually
assaulted. NatSCEV differs from earlier
studies in that it looks across the full spectrum of violence, examining and comparing
the incidence of different types of violence
within broad categories and determining
which types are more or less frequent. The
study looks not only at when and how children become more vulnerable to increasingly serious types of violence as they
grow older, it also tracks the cumulative
effects of exposure to violence over time.
For example, although all age groups are
vulnerable to simple assault, older children
and adolescents are several times more
likely to be sexually assaulted or to witness
a shooting than are younger children.
The NatSCEV study clearly illustrates the
cumulative effects on children exposed
to multiple incidents of violence and how
exposure to one form of violence may
make a child more vulnerable to other
forms. Nearly two in five children surveyed
were exposed to two or more types of
violence in the previous year. More than
1 in 10 was exposed to 5 or more different
types of violence during that year. These
children are the most likely to suffer serious long-term physical, emotional, and
mental harm (Finkelhor, Ormrod, and
Turner, 2007a, 2007b, 2007c). Many previous studies have shown how exposure to
violence has damaging consequences for
the physical and mental health of youth
(Gilbert et al., 2009; Widom, 1998; Fantuzzo
and Mohr, 1998; Hurt et al., 2001) and their
long-term functioning and well-being as
adults (Fergusson, Boden, and Horwood,
2008; Fergusson and Horwood, 1998;
Kendall-Tackett, 2003).
Expanding the Inquiry
Researchers and practitioners need to ask
children more specific questions about a
broader range of victimizations, including dating violence, emotional abuse, and
exposure to violence within the family. It
is also critical to ask children who are suffering from one form of victimization about
additional forms of victimizations they may
have experienced to fully address their
mental and emotional health needs. Practitioners also need to investigate victimization across all age ranges with the help of
instruments geared to younger children
and (as was done in the NatSCEV study)
the use of proxies, such as parents and
caretakers.
NatSCEV differs from earlier studies in that
it examines and compares the incidence
of different types of violence within broad
8
More research is also needed that follows children into adulthood to assess
the effects of violence on their long-term
health and well-being. Such research would
complement those studies, such as the
ACE study discussed earlier, that have
taken a retrospective look at the effects of
adverse childhood experiences. NatSCEV’s
findings affirm that more needs to be done
to measure children’s exposure to violence
on an ongoing and systematic basis using
public surveillance mechanisms, including
followup surveys and long-term monitoring
(Kracke and Hahn, 2008).
The estimates of specific exposures in
NatSCEV are roughly equivalent to or
somewhat higher than the estimates in
previous community survey studies of
child physical abuse (Theodore et al.,
2005); sexual victimization (Theodore et
al., 2005); sexual assault (Kilpatrick, Saunders, and Smith, 2003; Finkelhor, Hammer,
and Sedlak, 2008); physical assault with a
weapon (Kilpatrick, Saunders, and Smith,
2003); witnessing violence (Kilpatrick,
Saunders, and Smith, 2003); dating violence (Wolitzky-Taylor et al., 2008); and
bullying (Nansel et al., 2003). Differences
in age range and definition account for
some variations between the findings of
this and other studies. Because this is the
first national study to ask children and
their caregivers directly about exposure
to certain types of family violence, such
as assaults by one parent on another, the
exposure rate of 6.2 percent is several
times greater than estimates obtained
from cases disclosed to child protection agencies (Administration on Children, Youth and Families, 2004) and law
enforcement (Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2007).
Reaching Across Disciplines
This study’s findings confirm that more
needs to be done at all levels of policy
and practice to reach across disciplines
to identify children at risk from exposure
to violence and to coordinate the delivery
of services to these children. For example,
first responders and providers who are
involved in incidents of domestic violence
and deal with victims in their aftermath
(e.g., police, emergency room physicians
and nurses, social workers, domestic violence advocates, and judges) should be
aware not only of the adult victims but also
of the children who may have witnessed
the incident. They may also need to work
with childcare providers, teachers, and
school counselors and psychologists to
assess the effects on a child’s interaction
with his or her classmates and to provide
needed help.
Expanding Identification
Capabilities
Researchers, practitioners, and policymakers need to collaborate to develop and
expand effective screening and assessment
tools that are developmentally appropriate
for children across all age ranges and types
of violence. These instruments and tools
can identify children who are suffering
emotionally, socially, physically, and developmentally. More importantly, these instruments can aid practitioners, advocates,
frontline service providers, and responders
across all service sectors to reach and
help those children. Understanding the full
extent of children’s exposure to violence
and the interactions among multiple types
of violence more comprehensively can
further practitioners’ ability to respond to
those families who need support and to
alleviate the harmful effects of exposure to
violence (Kracke and Hahn, 2008).
Coordinating Across Sectors
Finally, just as the NatSCEV study by its
comprehensive nature addresses the fragmentation that, until now, characterized
many attempts to look at child victimization and exposure to violence, greater
coordination of the efforts to combat the
effects of that victimization are needed.
For example, recent initiatives have
formed to separately address bullying,
dating violence, and sexual harassment.
At the Federal, State, tribal, and local
levels, responsibility for dealing with children’s exposure to violence is distributed
across all service and response sectors
(e.g., health departments, hospitals, child
welfare and protection agencies, early
childhood educators and childcare providers, schools and educational institutions, domestic violence service providers
and advocates, law enforcement agencies,
and the justice system). The Safe Start Initiative has worked toward a comprehensive approach across the continuum of
prevention, intervention, treatment, and
response for 10 years and has made significant progress in increasing knowledge,
skills, and awareness of children’s exposure to violence. More work is needed.
The next step in addressing children’s
exposure to violence and efforts to ameliorate or eliminate the harm it causes is
to foster and sustain a comprehensive
approach in both practice and research
that builds on the groundwork established
under Safe Start and this study. It is important to develop, implement, and evaluate
programs and policies designed to prevent
children’s exposure to violence; to craft
and implement strategies and interventions to help children who have been
exposed to violence and their families; and
to replicate those programs, policies, and
interventions that prove to be effective in
preventing and lessening violence against
children in communities across the Nation.
The NatSCEV study represents the best
attempt to date to quantify children’s
exposure to violence. Understanding categories and forms of violence is critical to
creating appropriate interventions to prevent and suppress violence and to treat its
victims. This study’s greatest contribution,
however, is that it highlights the degree
to which children in this country live with
violence in their daily lives. Violence takes
a toll on children whether as victims or
witnesses. Seemingly minor incidents may
have long-lasting and far-reaching consequences. If policymakers, practitioners,
advocates, and the general public are to
respond effectively to curb the negative
effects of children’s exposure to violence,
everyone must look at the problem in its
totality and make a coordinated effort to
help the children and their families who
suffer these effects.
For Further Information
To learn more about the Safe Start Initiative, visit www.safestartcenter.org.
For more information about the
National Survey of Children’s Exposure to Violence, visit the Crimes
against Children Research Center
Web site at www.unh.edu/ccrc.
9
Endnotes
1. According to the 2005 National Crime
Victimization Survey, 44 per 1,000 juveniles ages 12 to 15 and 44.2 per 1,000
adolescents and young adults ages 16
to 19 were victims of violent crime, as
compared with a victimization rate of
21.2 per 1,000 for all persons age 12
and older (Baum, 2005).
2. Background material adapted from
information on the Safe Start Center
Web site. For more detailed information, go to www.safestartcenter.org.
3. Kracke and Hahn (2008) cite studies
that estimate children’s exposure to
violence as ranging from 3 million to
17 million incidents. As they note,
however, these studies measured only
children’s witnessing of domestic violence. They did not measure violence
that was inflicted on children directly
or violence that children witnessed
outside the home.
4. For an overview of these studies, see
Kracke and Hahn (2008).
5. For an overview of research on child
abuse and other forms of maltreatment and their long-term health and
behavioral consequences, see Repetti,
Taylor, and Seeman (2002).
6. The categories of adverse childhood
experiences studied were psychological, physical, or sexual abuse; violence
against mother; or living with household members who were substance
abusers, mentally ill or suicidal, or ever
imprisoned. For more information on
the ACE study, see Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (2006) and
Felitti et al. (1998).
7. The aggregate figure for any sexual
victimization did not include unwanted
online sexual solicitation (Finkelhor et
al., 2009).
8. Previous studies have also noted
that low-income and minority youth
are many times more likely to have
witnessed serious violence in the
community. Kracke and Hahn (2008)
cite studies noting that only 1 percent
of upper-middle-class youth had witnessed a murder and 9 percent had
witnessed a stabbing (Gladstein, Rusonis, and Heald, 1992), whereas 43 percent of low-income African American
school-aged children had witnessed a
murder and 56 percent had witnessed
a stabbing (Fitzpatrick and Boldizar,
1993).
Finkelhor, D., Turner, H.A., Ormrod, R.K.,
and Hamby, S.L. 2009. Violence, crime,
and exposure in a national sample of
children and youth. Pediatrics 124(5)
(November).
Fitzpatrick, K.M., and Boldizar, J.P. 1993.
The prevalence and consequences of
exposure to violence among AfricanAmerican youth. Journal of the American
Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 32:424–430.
Gilbert, R., Widom, C.S., Browne, K.D.,
Fergusson, D.M., Webb, E., and Janson, S.
2009. Burden and consequences of child
maltreatment in high-income countries.
The Lancet 373(9657):68–81.
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Kracke, K., and Hahn, H. 2008. The nature
and extent of childhood exposure to violence: What we know, why we don’t know
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This Bulletin was prepared under cooperative
agreement number 2005–JL–FX–0048 from the
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), U.S. Department of Justice.
Points of view or opinions expressed in this
document are those of the authors and do not
necessarily represent the official position or
policies of OJJDP or the U.S. Department of
Justice.
Acknowledgments
This Bulletin was written by David Finkelhor, Ph.D., Director, Crimes against Children Research Center, University of New Hampshire; Heather Turner, Ph.D., Professor, Crimes against Children Research Center, University of New Hampshire;
Richard Ormrod, Ph.D., Research Professor, Crimes against Children Research
Center, University of New Hampshire; Sherry Hamby, Ph.D., Research Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, Sewanee, University of the South; and
Kristen Kracke, M.S.W., Safe Start Initiative Coordinator and Program Manager,
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP). OJJDP wishes to
acknowledge the contributions to this Bulletin of James A. Mercy, Ph.D., Special
Adviser for Strategic Directions, Division of Violence Prevention, National Center
for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; and
Rebecca T. Leeb, Ph.D., Epidemiologist, Division of Violence Prevention, National
Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. OJJDP also wishes to acknowledge the support of CDC for the National
Survey of Children’s Exposure to Violence and its partnership in the Safe Start
Initiative to create safe, stable, and nurturing environments for children and their
families. The authors wish to thank Brian Higgins, Writer/Editor, Lockheed Martin’s
Office of Justice Programs Communication and Publication Support Services, for
his assistance in editing and coordinating the production of this Bulletin.
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